Snow Rabbit 3X for Vallecito Nordic Ski Club

For almost 30 years Vallecito Nordic trails have been groomed by volunteers dragging heavy things behind snowmobiles. Overall, the grooming has been great. Several thousand skier-days each year confirm that people enjoy and appreciate our groomed trails. However, we are finding that it is increasingly difficult to keep providing great groomed trails all winter. This is due to limitations of our current equipment (heavy things dragged by snowmobiles), weather patterns and our volunteer-based grooming crew.

To continue to offer great groomed ski trails we think now is the time to change how we groom by moving to a more sophisticated groomer. The specific groomer we have identified as ideal for our situation is the Favero Snow Rabbit 3X (SR3X).

The challenges of producing great groomed trails all winter are, at different times during the winter, heavy snowfall, limited snow and freeze-thaw cycles. The Snow Rabbit 3X addresses all of these challenges. With snowmobiles a large snowfall requires packing trails with just the snowmobiles, then with a roller and finally with the actual grooming equipment. This can require several days of packing before the trails are skiable. The SR3X would cut grooming time by, in some cases, days, making trials available for more of the season.

Early and late in the season we have limited snow in some areas. The options are shoveling snow to fill in bare/thin spots of closing trails. The SR3X has a blade so can push snow where it is needed. Again, this makes trails available for more days and improves the quality of the skiing.

We are experiencing more freeze-thaw cycles, which results in an ice crust that needs to be broken up before we have safe, enjoyable skiing. We have been doing this by making many passes with the teeth of our grooming equipment fully extended breaking the icy layer into smaller and smaller chunks with each pass. This approach is tough on our equipment and produces variable results. In the spring there is sometimes only an hour or two of good skiing between the time the grooming is finished and temperatures warm up and turn the snow to mush. The SR3X has a high-RPM tiller that would reduce the time it takes to refresh the snow, resulting in better grooming and more skiable hours.

The SR3X provides more skiable days and better-quality skiing. Obviously, this is great for skiers, but it is also great for our volunteer groomers. Most of our grooming team are retirees; the average age is probably close to 70! Spending 6 or 8 or 10 hours driving a snowmobile is hard work. Snowmobiles have a single, narrow tread belt so can slide into ditches along the trials or get stopped by deep snow. Digging and pulling stuck snowmobiles back onto the trail is very hard work. The SR3X with dual, wide treads would be less prone to get stuck and would reduce grooming time. Snowmobiles could be used for tuning up the trails, rather than for the more difficult grooming tasks. This would help keep our groomers engaged and healthy.

We believe that now is the time to shift our grooming approach to a machine that produces better trails, results in more skiable days and reduces the stress on our volunteer grooming team. A fully-equipped SR3X costs (as of 2024) $180,000. SR3X snow cats have been used for grooming in northern Colorado for 12 years and have proven to be both durable, reliable, and relatively easy to maintain. A new machine would push scheduled maintenance far enough into the future to build an adequate repair fund for such items. Off-season storage would be at the PRID work station. The machine can be pulled on a trailer by a standard pick-up truck.